August 19, 2013 | 3:20 PM | Carey Goldberg and Rachel Zimmerman

Invite To WBUR Event: How To Use Data And Media To Improve Health?

We’d like to invite you to a BYOB — Bring Your Own Brains — party on Sept. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m., here in the WBUR studios at 890 Commonwealth Ave.

The occasion: A chance to noodle together about how to use data and media to make people both better informed and potentially healthier. Not that we’ll all end up working together: The next step would be to compete against each other for generous grants. But at least we can start out friends…

Please join the Knight Foundation and WBUR’s Commonhealth Blog for a happy hour and discussion.

We’re organizing a series of events around the country to share the Knight News Challenge: Health, meet people working to create better informed and healthier communities, and discuss ideas for using data and public information toward that goal.
Food and drink will be provided, and there’s a bit more about the contest below. See you soon!
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Health—as concept, as systems, as goal—is something every one of us touches and thinks about, over and over, for our entire lives. Few things reach that sort of ubiquity and consequence. That’s compounded now, in the age of mobile and data and consumer technology, by a revolution in what we know about the health of the communities around us. From electronic medical records to wristbands that track our sleep to giant datasets released by the Department of Health and Human Services, we have access to more information than we’ve ever had before. What can we do with all that knowledge? We’re doing the Knight News Challenge: Health because we’re interested in the answer.

We’ll accept submissions to the News Challenge: Health from Sept. 3 to Sept. 17. Anyone in the United States or abroad, from an individual to a nonprofit to a company, may apply with an idea that touches on the challenge question. All entries received during that period will receive consideration to win a share of more than $2 million. You can find more details about applying, and the contest rules, here.

Readers, start your engines! (That is, come join us on Sept. 12 to prime your engines with some refreshments.) Grants aside, it will be a great treat for us to see you corporeally instead of our usual virtual interactions…

About CommonHealth

Massachusetts is the leading laboratory for health care reform in the nation, and a hub of medical innovation. From the lab to your doctor’s office, from the broad political stage to the numbers on your scale, we’d like CommonHealth to be your go-to source for news, conversation and smart analysis. Your hosts are Carey Goldberg, former Boston bureau chief of The New York Times, and Rachel Zimmerman, former health and medicine reporter for The Wall Street Journal.GET IN TOUCH

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Massachusetts is the leading laboratory for health care reform in the nation, and a hub of medical innovation. From the lab to your doctor’s office, from the broad political stage to the numbers on your scale, we’d like CommonHealth to be your go-to source for news, conversation and smart analysis. Your hosts are Carey Goldberg, former Boston bureau chief of The New York Times, and Rachel Zimmerman, former health and medicine reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Two Boston public school moms argue that a fraction of the money that Boston would have spent for the Olympics should go toward ensuring that all the city’s schoolchildren have the recess and gym time their bodies and minds need.